Much that is absurd has been written concerning the antiquity of
the ruined cities of Central America, and some authors have not
hesitated to place their foundation in an antiquity beside which
the pre-dynastic buildings of Egypt would appear quite recent. But
that they were abandoned not long before the Columbian era is now
generally admitted. See Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of
America," chap, iii., and the works of Charnay, Maler, Maudslay,
and Gordon, for modern opinion upon the subject; also the various
monographs contained in the more recent volumes of the U.S. Bureau of
Ethnology's annual report. That a very respectable antiquity belongs
to several sites is, however, certain; and competent authorities have
not hesitated to ascribe to some of the ruins an age of not less than
two thousand years.